They Would Never Hurt a Fly : War Criminals on Trial in The Hague

Rating: 4 (2 votes)

Tags: Female author

Description:

"Who were they? Ordinary people like you or me—or monsters?” asks internationally acclaimed author Slavenka Drakulic as she sets out to understand the people behind the horrific crimes committed during the war that tore apart Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Drawing on firsthand observations of the trials, as well as on other sources, Drakulic portrays some of the individuals accused of murder, rape, torture, ordering executions, and more during one of the most brutal conflicts in Europe in the twentieth century, including former Serbian president Slobodan Miloševic; Radislav Krstic, the first to be sentenced for genocide; Biljana Plavšic, the only woman accused of war crimes; and Ratko Mladic, now in hiding. With clarity and emotion, Drakulic paints a wrenching portrait of a country needlessly torn apart.

Reviews:

Kelly0102

(4 months ago)

05 Jan, 2026

The book gives mini bios about a few of the people tried for war crimes relating to 1994 Yugoslav Wars. None of the sketches have much depth or insight. They are too short to develop anything more than vague generalizations (which have been well established through much better research and literature) about why people commit heinous acts during war. I think the book would have been much better if it only focused on one person or maybe two people. The author could have really delved into the upbringing and circumstances that lead to the war crimes, as well as the criminals reaction to his trial and incarceration. Instead each chapter basically ended with … he was tried, found guilty and taken away. If the book is supposed to be a bit from the perpetrators perspective, as the author claims, then it sorely falls short. It is written from the perspective of an onlooker who arrived after the fact and didn’t try too hard to find out anything beyond what was written in previous newspaper accounts. Overall I do not recommend this book.